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make your exam preparation more result oriented. For this exam (UPSC Civil
Services), just ‘reading’ is not enough. The most advantageous part of this
writing exercise is to make your answer visible to everyone, someone may correct
you if they find a mistake in your answer plus it must be also supported by our
experts , you may see others answers also. It is free and definitely will
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topics from syllabus will be covered.

Public Administration- Paper I "Syllabus Topic – Public Policy: State
Theories & Public Policy"

Q1. Discuss the various state
theories with its public policy.

Model Answer:

A state can adopt many different approaches to public policy. These are
elaborated below:

1) Pluralistic Public Policy aims to cater to the interests of plural sections
of the society without seeking favor for any particular group
2) Neo- Pluralistic highlights a nexus between influential groups and the policy
making process and shows that policy aims to further the interest of these
groups
3) Capitalist State has public policy frameworks that enable the bourgeoisie to
further their interests
4) Marxists State designs policy with an egalitarian approach trying to achieve
the greater good for all sections
5) Leviathan State applies the Keynes philosophy of increased government
spending with a welfare approach e.g India
6) Liberal Feminist tries to use policy to create an enabling environment for
women through tools such as gender budgeting
7) Radical Feminist adopt policies that even though aim at addressing the
disadvantageous conditions of women, eventually end up perpetuating the male
hegemony
8) Minimalistic State is where policy plays the role of creating the right
environment in law and order, economic and social and does not directly
intervene in the development process
9) Development State is one which is pro market and creates an enabling
environment for economic activities
10) Social Democratic state aims at social restructuring through the tool of
public policy
11) Collectivist state adopts centralized and directive planning and adopts a
state control policy for the economic sector
12) Totalitarian State aims at maintaining full control over all activities of
the state
13) Elite State is where the elite in the society dictate the policy
14) Competition State is where the state focuses on Human Resource Development,
Technical and other education to build capacity and increase the competitive
environment
15) Laissez Faire economy is one that maintains no control over the economy and
provides minimum services of law and order and security etc
16) Hollow State is where the State systematically loses its powers to other
institutions and is incapable of bringing about any substantial social or
economic change